Principles & Practices, Project Management
My final project will involve building a computer controlled macine wth milling capabiities. The machine will be modeled aflter the MachinesThat Make Machines Project from MIT's CBA. I need to do some investigation into the existing models in order to determine which ones work effectively and are relativefly low cost. We (Century Fab Lab) built an early CNC a few years ago and although it worked, it's fuctionality was sketchy. However, since that time a great deal of thought and work has gone into this area and there are many more samples to build from.
I plan on incoporting all the standard fab machine proceses into this project. At this time i plan to build the case using the ShopBot, gearing and machine control X,Y,Z components using our 3D printer, either a Rasberry PI, as the electronics interface (still researching) or some other processor, and the Laser for precise elements using cast acrylic.
Last semester my Network Data Center Class did a project with the Rasberry PI and produced several instructional, or how to videos, which are availiable on YouTube. Additionally you can Google Century College Rasbery PI project and you will find a series instructional videos including shots of our programs data center. The YouTube videos highlight different uses for the PI's as well as uses for thise devices as contollers for a variety of uses. Students also utilized our Century College Fab Lab to construct their acrylic case.
Here are two photos of one of the cases students fabricated from a file they found on one of the public domain PI sites.
I plan on buildig a desktop CNC machine, hopefully utilizing the Rasberry PI as a controller. Again, at this point i am not sure which machine i will select. i will decide in the next week or so and begin ordering and prototyping my parts in the Fab Lab. i am intrigued by the Fab in A Box, which i have seen in various stages at several of the annual meetings. This is the one that i am thinking about at this time. The Rasberry PI may not work with this project as a controller but may work as a client for the machine.
My long term goal, not during this academy class, includes building a ShopBot like 4 x 8 CNC which i will house in my home fab lab. Two of my many hobbies, boat and home bulding, could be made much more interesting and productive with the utilizaton of larger scale CNC machines. Building a desktop CNC is the first step toward my larger goal.
